Design Components of Perahu Tambang

The perahu tambang are traditionally described as a passenger boat made out of timber with thatch leaf roof (although aluminium are now commonly used) that can carry 8 to 10 passengers at a time (Rahman, 2015; Manan, 2014), and has horizontal seats on both sides of the boat (Mohd Yusoff, 2013). Some are 15 feet (4.6 meters) long and 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) broad, while some are even longer and wider. The size of the perahu tambang may differ and the construction of a perahu tambang in Brooke era did not use any nails unlike in the modern ones (Taboh, 2014), instead they used pasak (timber pegs) system. Nails and steel joints are used today as to strengthen the structure of the boat and ease the construction process. Timber is used as the main material as they are strong. The process require communal works from various people as the process can be complicated. In term of aesthetics, the whole attention was put on the functional aspect to perform as a mode of transportation. The modern day perahu tambang are more colorful based on the owner’s desire.